• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.87-97
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• 2021

Purpose: This study examined emergency medical service (EMS) transportation patterns for adult trauma patients before and after establishing a level 1 regional trauma center (RTC) and to evaluate the transportation approach after prehospital severity screening. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study of trauma patients aged ≥18 years admitted via EMS to the emergency department or a level 1 RTC, 1 year before to 3 years after RTC establishment. Patients with an Injury Severity Score (ISS) in the patient registration system were selected. Analyses were performed to determine transportation pattern changes by comparing patients pre- and post-RTC establishment and by yearly comparisons over the 4-year study period using the Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square test. Results: Overall, 3,587 patients were included. The mean ISS was higher in the post-RTC group (n=2,693; 10.63±8.90, median 9.00) than in the pre-RTC group (n=894; 9.44±8.20, median 8.00; p<0.001). The mean transportation distance (9.84±13.71, median 5.80 vs. 13.12±16.15 km, median 6.00; p<0.001) was longer in the post-RTC group than in the pre-RTC group. Furthermore, proportionally fewer patients were transported from an area in the same city as the RTC after establishment (86.1% vs. 78.3%; p<0.001). Yearly comparisons revealed a gradually increasing trend in the hospital death rate (ptrend=0.031). Conclusions: After establishing a level 1 RTC, the EMS transportation of severe trauma patients increased gradually along with the long-distance transportation of minor trauma patients. Therefore, improved prehospital EMS trauma severity assessments and level 1 RTC involvement in patient classification in the prehospital phase are necessary.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.4143-4147
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• 2016

Purpose: We evaluated all PET/CTs acquired for patients without a primary diagnosis of colorectal cancer, and compared results for those who had subsequent colonoscopy within 6 months, to assess the accuracy of FDG PET/CT for detection of incidental pre-malignant polyps and malignant colon cancers. Materials and Methods: Medical records of 9,545 patients who underwent F-18 FDG PET/CT studies over 3.5 years were retrospectively reviewed. Due to pre-existing diagnosis of colorectal cancer, 818 patients were excluded. Of the remainder, 157 patients had colonoscopy within 6 months (79 males; mean age 61). We divided the colon into 4 regions and compared PET/CT results for each region with colonoscopy and histopathologic findings. True positive lesions included colorectal cancer, villous adenoma, tubulovillous adenoma, tubular adenoma and serrated hyperplastic polyp/hyperplastic polyposis. Results: Of 157 patients, 44 had incidental colonic uptake on PET/CT (28%). Of those, 25 had true positive (TP) uptake, yielding a 48% positive predictive value (PPV); 9% (4/44) were adenocarcinoma. There were 23 false positive (FP) lesions of which 4 were hyperplastic polyp, one was juvenile polyp and 7 were explained by diverticulitis. Fifty eight patients had false negative PET scans but colonoscopy revealed true pre-malignant and malignant pathology, yielding 23% sensitivity. The specificity, negiative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy were 96%, 90% and 87%, respectively. The average SUVmax values of TP, FP and FN lesions were 7.25, 6.11 and 2.76, respectively. There were no significant difference between SUVmax of TP lesions and FP lesions (p>0.95) but significantly higher than in FN lesions (p<0.001). The average size (by histopathology and colonoscopy) of TP lesions was 18.1 mm, statistically different from that of FN lesions which was 5.9 mm (p<0.001). Fifty-one percent of FN lesions were smaller than 5 mm (29/57) and 88% smaller than 10 mm (50/57). Conclusions: The high positive predictive value of incidental focal colonic FDG uptake of 48% for colonic neoplasia suggests that colonoscopy follow-up is warranted with this finding. We observed a low sensitivity of standardly acquired FDG-PET/CT for detecting small polyps, especially those less than 5 mm. Clinician and radiologists should be aware of the high PPV of focal colonic uptake reflecting pre-malignant and malignant lesions, and the need for appropriate follow up.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.43-49
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• 2023

In Korea, the dependence on living donations is high due to the shortage of organs available for donation compared to the number of people waiting for transplants and the number of living organ donations continues to increase. In particular, the number of living-donor transplantations is high worldwide, highlighting the importance of pre-transplant psychosocial evaluation of living kidney donors. According to previous studies, when evaluating living organ donors before transplantation, it is crucial to determine whether the donor can give informed consent and be aware of the risks after surgery. Pre-transplant evaluation tests such as ELPAT living organ donor Psychological Assessment Tool (EPAT), Live Donor Assessment Tool (LDAT), Living Donation Expectancies Questionnaire (LDEQ), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 questionnaire (MMPI-2) and Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) are conducted for donors. After reviewing the literature on these pre-transplant psychosocial assessment tools, we will also look at legal considerations for living kidney donors in Korea and suggest an effective and essential pre-transplant screening evaluation method for living kidney transplant donors.

• Korean journal of aerospace and environmental medicine
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.77-81
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• 2021

Purpose: The United States of America have pre-migration screening program are mandated through legislation. The one of purpose of this program is to prevent the importation of certain communicable diseases. Examinations of migration applicants are performed by panel physicians who are licensed physicians in the countries of origin that have agreements with the government departments of the country of destination to undertake this activity. In recent decades, the number of US migrants has increased, however COVID-19 impacted this trend of international migrants. The Aim of this study is to examine trends of US applicants and outcomes of tuberculosis and sexual transmitted infections (STIs) screening in South Korean applicants for US visa. Methods: A total of 4,442 applicants participated in US visa health check-up in 2016 to 2020. Results: The numbers of applicant for US visa in males and females was 1,814 and 2,628. The positive results in tuberculosis and STIs screening was noted with 0.66% in nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), 0.03% in tuberculosis, 0.03% in gonorrhea, 0.08% in syphilis, and 0.74% in chlamydia. The age groups of 2 to 14 years showed higher positive rate (13.89%) in tuberculin skin test (TST) tests compared to the rate of interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) tests (0.44%, P<0.001). The positive ratio of NTM and abnormal chest X-ray (CXR) which required sputum tests among the applicants over 15 years old has trends to increase with age. The age groups of over 70 years showed high positive rate in NTM and abnormal CXR (4.10%, 20.51%). However, ages 15 to 49 years groups showed 0.00% to 0.30% in NTM and 1.08% to 3.91% in abnormal CXR. In the study population, the positive rates of STIs were 0.03%, 0.08%, and 0.74% in gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia, respectively. Among the participants who underwent sputum smears and cultures were just 1 case of active tuberculosis (0.03%) and 25 cases of NTM infection (0.66%). Conclusion: This study found that rate of positivity in tuberculosis and STIs screening among South Korean applicants for US visa in 2016 to 2020. Regarding tuberculosis, the positivity of CXR among the aged 15 to 59 years applicants was lower than that among over 60 years old. Among 2 to 14 years, positivity of IGRA was very low. And IGRA test can reduce effort of further evaluation compared to TST test in South Korea, so IGRA test among young adults can be useful. High positive rates in STI among young adult could result in high active sexuality, especially chlamydia infection is most common. Therefore Chlamydia polymerase chain reaction should be considered formal protocol among the Korean applicant for US visa.

• Journal of Genetic Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.67-72
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• 2012

The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from patients' somatic cells provides a new paradigm for studying human genetic diseases. Human iPSCs which have similar properties of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) provide a powerful platform to recapitulate the disease-specific cell types by using various differentiation techniques. This promising technology has being realized the possibility to explore pathophysiology of many human genetic diseases at the molecular and cellular levels. Furthermore, disease-specific human iPSCs can also be used for patient-based drug screening and new drug discovery at the stage of the pre-clinical test in vitro. In this review, we summarized the concept and history of cellular reprogramming or iPSC generation and highlight recent progresses for disease modeling using patient-specific iPSCs.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.35-39
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• 2008

Menadione induced cell death in cultured C2 myoblasts. By screening synthetic peptide libraries composed of random sequence of hexapeptides, we identified the hexa-peptides pool of(Ala/Ile)-(Ile/Met)-Val-Ile-Asp-(Met/Ser)-$NH_2$ that protected the myoblasts against menadioneinduced cell death. Pre-incubation with the hexapeptide pool reduced the number of cells detached from culture dish substrate and increased the ratio of relative viability against menadione. In addition, the peptides strongly increased the expression of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein. These results suggest that the hexapeptides might enhance the resistance to cell death against menadione by increasing the expression of Bcl-2.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.213-234
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• 2010

This study focused on the determining factors of foreign workers employment in Korean companies. To improve our national enterprise's work outcome, it is necessary to establish a rational employment management policy plan so that the Korea can promote influx of foreign workers who have appropriate job skills and are hard-working and well suited for cultural environment. Accordingly, the companies need to develop the program by considering following. First, the duty of skilled foreign workers for employment is an important determinant factor and thus the targeting for foreign workers is necessary to proceed with pre-paced training. Second, reflecting the cultural characteristics of migrant workers, a cultural adjustment program needs to be developed. In this regard, the national program of screening foreign workers at the government level and the adaptation program needs to be launched suitable for local environment.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2003.11b
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• pp.817-820
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• 2003

현재 생물분자의 기능적 관점에서 단백질 구조에 관심이 많이 모아지고 있다. 단백질의 기능은 구조에서 기인하기 때문에 두 단백질의 구조간의 유사성을 측정할 수 있는 방법은 두 단백질의 기능의 유사성을 유추할 수 있다. 본 논문에서는 두 단백질의 원자간 결합선 분포의 유사성을 기반으로 한 웹 환경에서 동작하는 단백질 구조 검색 시스템을 설계 구현하였다. 두 단백질의 구조의 유사성을 측정하기 위한 단백질의 표현(representation)으로는 3 차원 에지 히스토그램을 사용하였다. 3차원 에지 히스토그램, 즉, 3차원 공간 상에서의 원자간 결합선 분포에 기반한 단백질 구조 검색 시스템은 많은 양의 단백질 구조 정보로부터 원하는 형태의 단백질 구조를 빠른 시간에 검색할 수 있는 장점을 가지므로 스크리닝의 전단계(pre-screening)에서 사용될 수 있다.

• Mycobiology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.272-279
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• 2015

To screen molecular chaperones similar to small heat shock proteins (sHsps), but without ${\alpha}$-crystalline domain, heat-stable proteins from Schizosaccharomyces pombe were analyzed by 2-dimensional electrophoresis and matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Sixteen proteins were identified, and four recombinant proteins, including cofilin, NTF2, pyridoxin biosynthesis protein (Snz1) and Wos2 that has an ${\alpha}$-crystalline domain, were purified. Among these proteins, only Snz1 showed the anti-aggregation activity against thermal denaturation of citrate synthase. However, pre-heating of NTF2 and Wos2 at $70^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, efficiently prevented thermal aggregation of citrate synthase. These results indicate that Snz1 and NTF2 possess molecular chaperone activity similar to sHsps, even though there is no ${\alpha}$-crystalline domain in their sequences.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.98-103
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• 2003

Based on ASME probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) and NEI PRA peer review guidance, we evaluate a human reliability analysis (HRA) in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for Korea standard nuclear power plants, Ulchin Unit 3&4, to improve it performed at under design. The HRA for Ulchin Unit 3&4 is assessed as higher than Grade I based on ASME PRA standard and as higher than Grade 2 based on NEI PRA peer review guidance. The major items to be improved identified through the evaluation process are the documentation, the systematic human reliability analysis, the participitation of operators in the works and review of HRA. We suggest the guidance on the identification and qualitative screening analysis for pre-accident human errors and solve some items to be improved using the suggested guidance.